About 45,000 square feet of retail has been available at the office tower 4 Times Square since former tenant ESPN Zone vacated in 2010, but recent reports and rumors had it that the fast fashion giant H&M was in advanced talks to take the whole space for a flagship store.

4 Times Square Retail (Formerly Occupied by ESPN Zone)

But after months of talk in the retail brokerage industry about a blockbuster deal at the property, a significant retail lease has yet to be announced. A leasing team from CBRE meanwhile is releasing new renderings of the space, which prominently display its signage, in what some market experts are taking as an indication the likelihood of a deal with H&M may have dimmed.

4 Times Square has had close calls before only to miss landing a big tenant. Earlier this year, Express was said to be in advanced talks to take the space in one of the most lucrative Times Square deals ever signed. Talks however appeared to stall over the summer and in a surprise move, the company opted to go elsewhere, to 1552 Broadway, a space that Express felt was closer to the heart of a neighborhood vaunted for its unparalleled tourist and pedestrian traffic.

After losing Express, the building’s landlord, the Durst Organization, hired a CBRE leasing team to oversee filling the space led by Amira Yunis, a top leasing broker in the city.

The new renderings, which were described to The Commercial Observer by a knowledgeable source, show signage that is prominently visible both from Times Square and 42nd Street, what appears to be a bid to show the space as both connected to an established retail district and a lynchpin in an emerging retail corridor heading east along 42nd Street.